Thursday, January 31, 2008

i saw the world thrashing all around your face

"i'll stop the world and melt with you.you've seen the difference, and it's getting better all the time.there's nothing you and i won't do,i'll stop the world and melt with you."

history lesson:i melt with you, an mtv staple in 1983, is the song that the band modern english is best known for. the song, produced by hugh jones, was a single from the album after the snow. while never reaching the Top 40 (its highest position was #76, which it reached with a july 1990 rerelease), the song gained popularity due to its airplay on mtv in early 1983 and its inclusion during the closing credits in the movie valley girl. the band re-recorded it in 1990 for their album pillow lips.

personal reflection:valley girl was one of those movies that kate and i were ever-prone to watch on a saturday night. an odd night for staying in and renting videos, one might think, but from what i remember it was the one night we never quite liked going out on. there was always too much expectation in the air on a saturday night. what with the clubs twice the price, and all the long lines and date nights going on, it just never held its appeal to us. so, it was the couch and some of our personal vices, and a stack of movies. valley girl was in that stack more often than not (usually accompanied by dogs in space, sid and nancy and modern girls), and we had our character crushes and our moments of singing along.

even when this song turned into an advertisement for hamburgers, or when every local radio station decided to play it to near death during its flashback weekends and lunches, it still always reminds me of randy and julie, and the valley.